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ARIJ and Jericho PPI committee meet Anti-Corruption Commission

Bethlehem, January 21, 2013:- Good Governance (GG) Department of the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ) and Jericho Pro-Poor Integrity (PPI) met with Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) in an effort to connect Jericho committee and PACC in a partnership.

The PPI Jericho committee members, and Rasha Alyatim of ARIJ GG met the General Director of Planning and Studies at PACC, Hamdi Al-Khawaja. The meeting in Jericho was a planning meeting to discuss common interests and joint fields of interventions between ARIJ, Jericho PPI Integrity committee and PACC. The participants intended to reach common grounds of understanding on how each involved participant can help in building and achieving a level of “Good Governance” in Jericho governmental and non-governmental bodies.

Picture: part of meeting held in Jericho

“We have been working hard for the past 3 years, (PPI) as a funded program is coming to an end but we don’t want to see our work ending with it. We hope that by connecting with PACC, we can grow stronger not weaker to achieve more and not less”, said Mowfa’q Qraesh from Jericho committee, who initiated the communication with PACC.

Pro-Poor Integrity (PPI) Program uses a social accountability approach to improve the way services are delivered, especially to the poor and most marginalized in Al-Ram. PPI’s approach is a community driven, collaborative problem-solving approach, focusing on integrity problems and solutions in public service delivery. PPI’s approach focuses on building capabilities, increasing responsiveness, increasing accountability and collecting evidence in public service delivery.

Jericho committee and PACC have the same vision, fight corruption and build GG in Jericho’s different sectors. The proposed plan they worked on during the meeting consisted of training programs to raise awareness about good governance as an approach, and preventive programs to decrease the chances of mismanagement or corruption in all Palestinian sectors, especially public and service delivery.

The meeting was also helpful to clear some misunderstandings among Jericho committee members regarding PACC and the Palestinian Anti- Corruption law. Al-Khawaja was very cooperative with the committee members and supportive of their drive and civil work. In addressing the members he said: “I do value your enthusiasm towards this kind of concept, It is a difficult concept that is fairly recent in the Palestinian community-refereeing to the PPI committee concept-. Your ideas and our knowledge can work hand in hand to develop all sectors of Jericho governmental services”.

This meeting is one in a series of meetings among GG unit , Jericho committee and PACC. ARIJ is working towards sustaining its efforts in the PPI program in Jericho through helping Jericho PPI committee connect and build relations with stronger, more influential, and national Good Governance entities.